It had been raining for several days, and the weather in Kaifeng finally cleared up. Xie Zheng looked at the muddy streets in the city, and the potholes were filled with stinky water. His mood was similar to this scene, deserted and miserable.
He was originally a scholar from Liaodong, and his uncle was Xie Sheng, a great scholar who was expelled from his membership for leaking Chongzhen's money and the Manchus. After the collapse of the Xie family, Xie Zheng was still determined to serve the country, so he went south to Kaifeng and joined Li Xianfeng, the governor of Henan. While working on the job, I never expected that I would witness with my own eyes the drama of a governor breaching embankments and flooding the city.
"The dust flags are like clanging iron, decorated with wild yellow blood. Thousands of people looked back and stood in the wind for a long time. In the distance, they saw small painted flowers on the windows of their homes.
On the way, I encountered a distant visitor who stopped his horse, and the arrows shot like arrows in the sand. Next year, you can visit my house, and if there is no one, please put a flower."
Xie Zheng wrote all what he saw and heard in Kaifeng in the book "Bianliang Seeing and Hearing". The book begins with the invasion of the army and sieges the city, and ends with Gao Mingheng breaking the embankment. He wrote these few sentences at the end of the book At the time of the poem, the soldiers of the invading army had already entered the city.
A few months ago, the officials and gentry of Kaifeng dug up the embankment of the Yellow River and tried to use water to disperse the invading troops besieging the city. However, things went counterproductive. The invading troops crossed the river in time and successfully prevented a large area of the river from bursting its embankments. Only a small amount of river water poured out of the ditch and spread all the way to Kaifeng. Under the city walls.
There was originally a sheep and horse wall outside the city of Kaifeng. When the flood hit the sheep and horse wall, the water had eased. Apart from destroying hundreds of military tents of the invading army along the way, it actually failed to have any effect.
The civil and military officials in Kaifeng City, as well as the King of Zhou, all thought that when the water rushed under the city wall, it must have broken the embankment successfully. In panic, they moved all the boats and rafts prepared in advance to the high ground in the north of the city to be prepared in case of flooding. However, Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu did not expect that only such a small amount of floodwater would be released. Their method of collecting ships revealed that they were the masterminds of the breach of the embankment.
The invading army also fired a large number of notices into the city, saying that the governor of Kaifeng had sent troops to breach the embankment, but had been stopped by the invading army. Anyone with a heart in Kaifeng City who was interested in his own property and fields should also be the governor, and the King of Zhou opened the city and surrendered.
Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu originally relied on the financial and material resources of the local gentry in Kaifeng to organize social soldiers and armed forces. However, they and the King of Zhou planned to dig rivers to irrigate the city, which was clearly to protect themselves and sold all the possessions and lives of the local gentry.
When things have reached this point, can Li Xianfeng and Gao Mingheng still rely on the local gentry to fight against the invading army?
The day after the embankment broke, the Cao Cao coalition launched a general attack on Kaifeng. This time, the soldiers Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu relied on were all disobedient. They all suspected that the Yellow River embankment was indeed what the notice said. In this way, he has an unclear relationship with the high-ranking people and the king of Zhou.
Everyone knows that there is a huge amount of money in the palace of King Zhou. Even though a lot of money has been scattered recently, the inventory is still very alarming. Now they turned their guns and took advantage of the opportunity of a general attack by the army to attack the palace of King Zhou and blackmail King Zhou to hand over a sum of money. Only one million taels of silver would be willing to defend the city with all his heart.
King Zhou was a rare person in the Ming Dynasty who knew current affairs. He knew that the matter was urgent and agreed immediately. However, he agreed so quickly that the soldiers felt that the palace's wealth was still sufficient, so they continued to blackmail Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu. Unable to stand it any longer, he invited Gao Qian, another member of the official army, to lead his troops to disperse the scoundrels besieging the palace.
The battle was raging on the city, but such a ridiculous farce happened in front of the palace. Chen Yongfu finally lost his fighting spirit, but he still refused to believe that Li Zicheng would let go of his hatred for shooting him out of one eye, so he decided to break out alone .
At this time, Chen Xin finally gave all the letters written to him by Chen Kexin to Henan Governor Li Xianfeng for viewing. He wanted to ask Li Xianfeng to lead the governor's staff to surrender to the invaders, but although Li Xianfeng had designed a "heavenly plan" with Li Laiheng "King De" is such a farce of deceiving his superiors and concealing his actions from his subordinates, but he is not an unscrupulous person.
Li Xianfeng handed those letters to his staff, including Xie Zheng, and asked them to read them all before deciding whether to surrender to the Chu army.
As for himself, he gave up both his plan to surrender and his plan to break out and escape with Chen Yongfu. Li Xianfeng finally said to Chen Xin: "Wang Chen, you are a man of Wang Zuo's talents. You should not bury Caoye."中. But is Li Zicheng really the master of the people? As the saying goes, his rise and fall are also sudden. It has been less than two years since Li Zicheng entered Henan. He is about to break through Kaifeng and sweep through the Central Plains. But I see that there is only one Niu Jinxing beside him. Without the help of capable scholars, how can we conquer the world with just a few bandits and thieves?"
After Chen Xin was silent for a while, he replied: "If Futai surrenders to King Chuang, King Chuang will no longer be a rootless tree... What's more, although King Chuang still doesn't understand the important principles of storing grain and paying, and governing the prefecture and county, I think According to Wen Gu's letter, Mr. Li's strategy in the Three Chus has begun to bear fruit. Even if King Chuang is the one who leads the way for the king, I am afraid that the king and the king will also be in Chuang's army."
Li Xianfeng shook his head. He placed the governor's official uniform and seal on an incense table, bowed to the north again and again, and finally said: "Other staff, those who are willing to commit suicide can follow Wang Chen. If you do not want to surrender, you can follow him." People, I still have some silver here. You can share it with me and use it as travel expenses. It’s up to you whether you want to return home or return it to the capital in the future.”
Xie Zheng was also with Li Xianfeng at that time. He originally had a grudge against Futai because Li Xianfeng agreed with Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu to break the embankment. But at this time, he suddenly felt that Li Futai was weak on both sides and was trying to cover up the situation in Henan. He was only representing the situation in Henan. Emperor Chongzhen has suffered, and there is no other way.
Xie Zheng and other people who were unwilling to join the Chuang Army each accepted some money from Li Xianfeng and then left silently. According to Chen Xin, the military discipline of the Chuang Army was pretty good and they probably wouldn't make things difficult for them. Anyone who wanted to leave could leave. , but he emphasized that there are some differences between King Li in Huguang and King Li Chuang in the Central Plains. If they are curious about Chuang's army, they can first go to Suizhou and other places to watch King Li's strategy, and then Make other plans.
As for Li Xianfeng's subsequent situation, Xie Zheng did not see it with his own eyes. He only knew from the notice posted by the intruder army that Li Xianfeng died hanging from a beam in the middle hall of the governor's Yamen after the city of Kaifeng was defeated.
Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu disguised themselves as refugees when the city was destroyed. They didn't know what route they took, but they actually fled back to Beijing. Emperor Chongzhen did not punish them, but instead suppressed the officials to punish Gao and Huang for breaching the dike. After the impeachment, Gao Mingheng was promoted to the governor of Henan, and Huang Shu was promoted to the governor of Huguang.
It was just that Gao Mingheng probably felt that his moral conduct was lacking, and claimed that he was seriously ill after the Battle of Kaifeng, so he asked to leave his hometown. Huang Shu happily took over as the patrol commissioner of Huguang, and was ordered to go to Xiangyang to supervise Zuo Liangyu's troops.
The remnants of the flood outside Kaifeng City have not yet been cleaned up, and the flags of the rebels planted all over the city are fluttering in the wind, making Xie Zheng full of worries about his homeland.
When I want to return to my cocoon, I turn off the lamp, and the trees in the courtyard are filled with sieve hooks and moonlight.
Looking to the endless end of the sky, a city of light and water covers the cold stars.
He didn't know what to do next.
Join the army?
Although after Li Zicheng entered the city, the military discipline of the invading army was indeed good as Chen Xin said. It was not like the rumors spread by Gao Mingheng and Huang Shu for a long time. After entering the city, he would kill all the soldiers and civilians in Kaifeng, leaving no chickens or dogs behind. .
But as far as he could see, although the military discipline of the Breaking Army was pretty good, the discipline of Cao Ying's soldiers and horses could only be described as terrible. Li Zicheng couldn't even completely restrain his subordinates. As Li Xianfeng said before committing suicide, how could he be the master of the people? How can a few bandits and thieves conquer the world?
Return to the capital?
Xie Zheng was born in Liaodong, and most of his clansmen died at the hands of the Qing army. However, his uncle Xie Sheng, a great scholar, was deregistered because he revealed that Chongzhen wanted to negotiate peace with the Manchus and "we must first settle the internal affairs before fighting foreign affairs." , he himself was implicated and had no future in the capital.
What about Huguang?
Chen Xin had previously persuaded him that no matter what kind of prejudice he had against Chuang Jun, he should first go to Huguang to see Mr. Li, the little King Li.
During his time as a secret agent under Li Xianfeng, Xie Zheng got to know Chen Xin very well and knew that he indeed had Wang Zuo's talents and would never deceive others casually.
"Huguang...Li Laiheng...what difference will there be? Okay, then I'll go and have a look!"